Volume One, Chapter Three: A Night Away

Jiang Yunmiao was awakened by the ringing of her phone. Strangely, the call was from Duan Yixiao. She stared at the word “Husband” displayed on the screen, her eyes gradually filling with tears. That label had been set three years ago, on the day she and Duan Yixiao registered their marriage. Back then, she believed their days ahead would be warm and radiant. Now, those two words felt chillingly cold.

The ringtone stopped and started again. Just before Duan Yixiao lost patience, Jiang Yunmiao answered the call.

“Why are you only answering now?” Duan Yixiao asked sternly.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Yunmiao tightened her fist slightly.

Hearing her hoarse voice and fragile tone, a sudden unease crept into Duan Yixiao’s heart, and his voice softened somewhat. “Seventh Aunt said you didn’t come home all night last night. Where were you?”

Jiang Yunmiao glanced around the hospital room and curled her lips into a cold smile. “I went to see a movie—a horror film. Accidentally fell asleep in the theater.”

Duan Yixiao exhaled in relief; he had been overthinking. He had always said Jiang Yunmiao was healthy and strong. When she miscarried three years ago, the doctor advised her to rest for a month, but she only took two weeks before fully recovering.

He frowned, adding a hint of reproach to his tone. “You’re pregnant. Why watch a horror movie? Come home quickly. Tonight, Old Master has invited us for dinner.”

The “Old Master” he referred to was his father, Duan Zhenhong, chairman of Duan Group.

Duan Yixiao was an illegitimate son and had never been accepted by the elder Duan family members before. It was only after he and Jiang Yunmiao had built their startup into a thriving business that Duan Zhenhong began to recognize him, gradually considering involving him in the Duan Group’s affairs.

Now, Duan Yixiao had secured his footing in the company and gained his father’s recognition, so he was expected to attend the monthly family gatherings.

Previously, Jiang Yunmiao would accompany him, discreetly gathering useful information in her role as a family member.

But this time, she was powerless to help.

“I can’t go,” Jiang Yunmiao replied coldly.

“Yunmiao,” Duan Yixiao’s voice tinged with surprise and a trace of thin anger, “you must go!” he said decisively.

“Where are you? I’ll come pick you up,” he softened his tone, realizing he’d been too harsh.

A tactical retreat.

Jiang Yunmiao pressed her lips together. How had she never noticed his tricks before? How easily had she been swayed by these small favors?

Her hand grew tired from holding the phone, so she switched to speaker and set it aside, then spoke slowly, “Husband…” She uttered the word but her mouth twitched involuntarily; somehow, that title had become unbearably hot to say.

“Remember? I booked two tickets for a luxury cruise to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I don’t want the tickets to go to waste. Since you’re busy, I’m boarding alone. Don’t tell me you want me to swim back across the river?”

Duan Yixiao frowned. Jiang Yunmiao’s words unsettled him in a vague way; a faint guilt stirred deep inside.

“That’s not what I meant. When will you be back?”

Jiang Yunmiao thought for a moment. “About five or six days. I should be discharged by then.”

Lu Shenshen had arranged for Sister Xu to care for her.

Sister Xu listened quietly to the call, understanding that Jiang Yunmiao’s marriage was in trouble. Her face showed genuine sympathy. “Aren’t you afraid he’ll look for you on the cruise?”

“He won’t. That’s the difference between love and indifference,” Jiang Yunmiao said, finally seeing things clearly without rose-colored glasses.

She bit back the pain in her incision and turned over. Every pang reminded her to love herself more in the future.

*

Life in the hospital was leisurely, giving her time to reflect on many things.

Her only worry was her pet, Yeye. Yeye was a Samoyed she had adopted three years ago.

Because Duan Yixiao didn’t care much for animals and Seventh Aunt found them troublesome, Jiang Yunmiao took care of Yeye almost entirely by herself. Whenever she stroked the dog’s fluffy white fur and saw its irresistibly adorable smile, she felt deeply comforted.

So every day she checked the surveillance camera to see if Yeye was lively and well.

But unexpectedly, she saw a familiar figure entering her home on the footage—Chen Nianke.

This was the house they had painstakingly bought with their hard-earned savings. Every detail was infused with her care and ingenuity. She had once thought this house was where her happiness would bloom for the rest of her life.

Yet now, Duan Yixiao had recklessly brought another woman home.

Jiang Yunmiao almost sat bolt upright in bed, itching to rush back and confront them.

The pain in her abdomen brought her a sliver of reason. Like a masochist, she stared fixedly at the frozen image on her phone.

Duan Yixiao seemed drunk, and Chen Nianke was helping him unsteadily toward the sofa.

Whether by design or accident, Chen Nianke fell into his arms, and they collapsed onto the couch in an unmistakably intimate pose.

Jiang Yunmiao’s gaze darkened visibly—the sixty-thousand-yuan sofa was sullied.

Chen Nianke tenderly poured him water and fed it to him.

As Duan Yixiao drank, he looked at her affectionately, blatantly displaying what it meant to be deeply in love.

Then Chen Nianke helped him upstairs.

Jiang Yunmiao found herself rather bored, watching the still footage for a whole hour.

*

But during that hour, Chen Nianke did not come back downstairs.

A solitary man and woman, a first love and a cherished memory, like tinder and flame—what would happen was obvious.

Jiang Yunmiao took a deep breath. Her bedroom, too, had become tainted.

At this moment, she felt a strange relief.

She was glad they slept in separate rooms.

When she found out she was pregnant, Duan Yixiao had suggested sleeping apart.

At first, she disagreed, fearing it would harm their marital relationship.

But Duan Yixiao had been leaving early and coming home late every day. By the time he returned, she was already asleep.

So he naturally took the guest room, claiming he didn’t want to disturb her rest.

Over time, separate bedrooms became their norm.

She only learned later that the day she discovered her pregnancy was the same day Chen Nianke returned to the country.

Her old friend had hosted a welcome party, which Duan Yixiao attended.

Perhaps from then on, that hopeless youthful love of Duan Yixiao’s had rekindled.

And she had become nothing but a mere ornament in their marriage, a drop of mosquito blood.

Thinking of all the moments over the past months, of her endless endurance and attempts to salvage their relationship, Jiang Yunmiao felt a choking bitterness in her throat.

Now, she was utterly disillusioned.

During her hospital stay, Duan Yixiao hadn’t been idle either—he had made the news twice.

Once, for wearing a diamond necklace worth five million at a charity gala.

But she preferred pearls and jade.

The one who liked diamonds was Chen Nianke.